COMPREHENSION ECRITE

Séquence 3 : GIRLS' EDUCATION

COMPREHENSION ECRITE
Dr. ALADJI MAMADOU SANE
Séquence 3 : GIRLS' EDUCATION

Three years ago, government officials in the East African country of Malawi began
sending a troupe of actors into rural villages to present dramas on the theme of why girls should
be educated. They worked with village leaders to promote girls education and reinforced their
efforts with a public information campaign using community meetings, radio, comic books and
T-shirts. Their efforts paid off. For the first time ever, the dropout rate for girls in the district of
Machinga is now lower than that of boys, and 25 female dropouts from the village of
Chimkwezule have now returned to school. This month, the project will be expanded to the
National level.

The Malawi project, formally known as Girls Attainment in Basic Literacy and Education,
or GABLE, was funded by the U.S Agency for International Development. It is an example of
the growing investment that International Aid Organizations, working with leaders of
underdeveloped countries, are making in the education of girls. More effective education of
girls, said James D. Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, constitutes “the single most
effective investment that a developing country can make”. The existence of a global “gender
gap” in schooling is well documented. According to Unicef, in 1990 two thirds of the estimated
300 million children worldwide who lack access to primary or secondary schooling are girls.
Gender discrepancies increase during the secondary school years, and by age 18, girls have
received on average 4.4 fewer years of education than boys. Nearly two thirds of the estimated
900 million adult illiterates in the world are females.

Dr. ALADJI MAMADOU SANE 1

COMPREHENSION ECRITE
Séquence 3 : GIRLS' EDUCATION

In part, because of growing concern about the issue, female enrollment has been climbing
throughout the 1990’s. Still, among children aged five to eleven in underdeveloped countries,
nearly three girls out of ten are still not in school, compared to one out of ten boys. Reasons for
the gender gap vary from country to country, but problems include the need for girls to work in
the home, judgments by families that investing in a boy’s education has a greater economic pays
off: and cultural and religious attitudes that place less value on women’s education. When girls
do enroll in formal schooling, they are often faced with teaching that is inappropriate to their
needs. Although the gender gap is pervasive in developing countries, there is also abundant
evidence that attacking it pays off: primarily because the education gains of girls are passed on
to their children. As Ruby Manikan, an Indian church leader stated in an oft-quoted remark: “If
you educate a man, you educate a person; but if you educate a woman, you educate a whole
family”. Over the last two decades, researchers have shown that women with even a few years
of schooling are better agricultural producers and generate more income for their families.
Educated mothers provide their families with more nutritious meals and provide better health
care including vaccinations. The children of educated mothers survive infancy and childhood at
a higher rate and are more likely to succeed in school. Educated women also marry later, have
fewer babies and are more likely to breastfeed those that they do bear.

By Edward B. FISKE.

International Herald Tribune

October 19-20, 1996, p.19

Dr. ALADJI MAMADOU SANE 2